Saude! Ice-cold caipirinhas in Bahia

By Sarah LeTrent, CNN

Residents of Bahia, Brazil, may be getting ready to play host to many of the 2014 FIFA World Cup matches, but their lively Afro-Brazilian culture is proudly on display in the streets and on the beaches year-round.

Amid the state's intoxicating samba rhythms, colorful art scene and vibrant lifestyle is an equally intoxicating cocktail of lime, sugar and cachaça - the caipirinha, which just happens to be Brazil's national drink.

"What’s magical about this cocktail is the first taste, it’s like, 'I don’t know man. It’s a little too something.' And then that second sip, it’s like, 'aw, that’s kinda good.' Then the third sip, it’s 'where are my pants?'" host Anthony Bourdain says as he guzzles one in the streets of the capital city of Salvador.

Are these the world's best drummers?

Drums are a matter of life and sometimes death in Bahia, as these funeral mourning drummers from the group Ile Aiye in Salvador demonstrate. Ile Aiye is one of the most important groups that preserves the African culture in Brazil.

By Joe Robinson, for CNN

(CNN) -- Wander the historic streets of the Bahian capital of Salvador, and you're never far from one of the region's most moving traditions: its powerful rhythms.

Whether it's the local axe pop music powered by freight-train percussion or street musicians and blocos afro pounding out hypnotic riffs, big beats power Bahia in a way they do nowhere else in Brazil, maybe even the world.

A state on Brazil's coast, Bahia is the center of the country's Afro-Brazilian culture, and the heartbeat of that is the drum.

The state is home to percussion ensembles such as Ile Aiye and Olodum, a group of several thousand members famed for their work with Paul Simon, that make Carnival in Salvador one of the top attractions in Brazil.

Percussionist Carlinhos Brown rose from drumming on empty water bottles in the streets of a poor neighborhood in Salvador to become one of Brazil's top hit makers and artists, not to mention a judge on "The Voice Brasil."

Brown founded the mostly percussion band Timbalada, a Carnival favorite, which takes its name from the conical hand drum known as a timbal.